Wednesday, July 7, 2010

In his book Black Is the New White, comedy legend Paul Mooney writes the following about breaking into stand-up in 1970, at Ye Little Club, "Joan Rivers's joint in Beverly Hills." Caution -- unrestrained language ahead:

Joan opens the place so she and her comedian friends have a place to try out material. It's small, casual, intimate, a jazz club for jazz people. . . .

My comedy is a nuclear bomb inside my mind. It's a weapon that's never been tested. It just blows up and flattens everybody. I start out talking about the funniest shit I know, which is race.

Thank God, Paul Revere was white, because if he was black, they'd have shot his ass. "He done stole that horse, let's kill him! Kill him!" And who do they say sewed the flag, what's her name? Betsy Ross? Now, come on -- they had slaves back then. Betsy Ross was asleep at six. You know some big black mama was up at night sewing that flag! "Honey, oh, Lawd, have mercy, I'm just up so late sewing this flag, I'm seeing stars!" And she's thinking about the stripes on her back, from the whip. So there we get it, the stars and stripes. But as soon as the white men got there, the white lady Betsy Ross jumped up, "See what I did?"

Right away, I notice something. The black people in the audience react to me way differently than the white people. Like in this routine. White people like the killing of the black horse-thief. They like the coon talk of the slave woman.

But the white folks get tight-faced and nervous when I start making fun of the white lady Betsy Ross. I know they like history. White people like going back in time, which is always a problem for me. I can only go back so far. Any farther and my black ass is in chains.

At Ye Little Club, I always drop some history into my act. It's knowledge. There's always a message in my comedy. But it's like a time bomb. The audiences might not get it right away. But they get it later that night, the next day, a week later. Then they understand.

I start to study white audiences. I see their reactions. I get my first walkouts. A lot of white people remind me of scared rabbits. When the wolf comes out, they run. They twitch their little pink noses and haul ass out of there.

When I imitate middle-class white speech, I see a flicker of unease cross the faces of the white people in the audience. Then, when I go into ghetto riff, the smiles return. They're fine as long as I am making fun of the same kind of people they make fun of, chinks and spics and niggers. But as soon as I start talking about them, I can clear a room.

My favorite is Lassie. Is that dog smart. Goddamn that dog is smart. They talk to Lassie like Lassie is a person. "Lassie, hey, Lassie, how's your mom? I love you! Call me in an hour!" I saw one episode, Grandpa has a heart attack? Lassie drove him to the hospital. And made a left turn. I said, Goddamn, Lassie, this is a smart dog. . . .

When I'm up onstage, I'm watching the audience like a hawk. I'm analyzing little tics, tells, and reactions they don't even know they are having. I study them. I have jungle eyes, I don't miss a thing.

I start to get so I can orchestrate my act. Some nights I feel like I'm Quincy Jones, like I'm playing the white audience like an instrument. That line'll make 'em nervous, but this line'll bring 'em back. I tease it to the edge.

It's funny, isn't it? Most of the white folks at Ye Little Club laugh about everyone else, but when I talk about them, they suddenly lose their sense of humor. They freeze up like an engine out of oil. If I do it enough, if I push it too far for them, they get up and leave.

So I think, Fuck them. I do it more than enough and I push it too far. Some nights I'm not happy until I provoke a walkout.

That's when I find my true audience. Black people, who are always with me, and brave white people. The non-rabbits of the bunch. The ones who can laugh at themselves.

Paul Mooney is the creator and star of Know Your History -- Jesus Was Black ... So Was Cleopatraand Analyzing White America.Mooney has also worked widely as an actor (Hollywood Shuffle, The Buddy Holly Story, Bamboozled), as a screenwriter (Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling), and as a television writer (Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Richard Pryor Show, In Living Color, Chappelle's Show). Mooney's memoirBlack Is the New White, which focuses largely on his relationship with his life-long friend Richard Pryor, is a great read -- insightful, hilarious, revealing, and everything else that Dave Chappelle says about it in the book's Foreword.

31 comments:

White people can learn alot about themselves by their reactions at comedy clubs. When they choose to go the see black comedians who are brutal in their comedy such as Paul Mooney, how they react is telling to them. They should analyze it and make going to the club worth their while! How can one go to a comedy club and not be able to laugh at oneself? It's an incomplete experience!

There are some people who just can't laugh at themselves, whether it's at jokes like Paul Mooney's or otherwise. But for those who can laugh at jokes like that, there's probably still a racial element there based on who it's coming from: rednecks can laugh with Jeff Foxworthy when he calls out their lack of sophistication, education, and hygiene, but somehow I don't think many of them would laugh with Mooney.

This reminds me of Dave Chappelle's unreleased "Haters in Time" sketch, where Dave (as Silky Johnston) shoots a slave owner, and for some reason the show came to a screeching halt, said Dave. As a white Southern man, I don't see how that's not funny, unless you're nostalgic for slavery.

@ Uncragil: I don't mind when people make fun of the Irish. If they're Irish. If they're English? Not so much.

It's funny, isn't it? Most of the white folks at Ye Little Club laugh about everyone else, but when I talk about them, they suddenly lose their sense of humor. They freeze up like an engine out of oil. If I do it enough, if I push it too far for them, they get up and leave.

Okay.

See, that's not surprising to me, because when someone not in your group is making fun of your group... at a certain point it can stop being funny to you. It may be thought-provoking in some ways, but not really funny.

I get the same vibe when watching male comics riff on women, or women on men. There's a point where pointing out true differences or quirks or "I just don't understand where the hell they're coming from with that kooky relationship behavior" and "I really hope that bitch catches on fire!"

You're right. Context is key for humor. White privilege and white supremacy is ALWAYS the cultural context in question, when discussing White people as a People. If WP get up and leave when a POC comic starts cracking on whitefolks, it's because they felt their white culture was being mocked. Since white culture IS white privilege, and white privilege is the engine for Racism, I'm just not ever gonna lose sleep over WP being made uncomfortable for being white... at least not in THIS context.

I’m sure some would say, “All they do is make fun of white people at those concerts.” But in actuality, the primary target of most black comedians is usually black people. From Cedric the Entertainer, to Chris Rock- Richard Pryor and Bernie Mac; all performed from points of view derived from the black experience. However...once whites were seated in the audience, one would have to be a fool to think he/she could emerge from such encounters unscathed.

Whites pay good money for those seats, so I’m sure they have some inclination as to the comedian’s bravura upfront. Consequently as whites were encouraged to laugh at their own idiosyncrasies, we blacks laughed ‘at them… as well as with them.’

Course we’ve been laughing at ourselves since slavery; because if we weren’t able to make light of the absurdity of our situation we’d go crazy. So as we sat in the slave quarters (away from prying eyes) we poked fun at the master- the mistress and those bad-assed white kids placed in our charge; all so we could face another day.

For some (wacky, whimsical!) reason, I just can't wrap my head around the idea of white people getting up and walking out on a Paul Mooney show! I accept that it happens— probably quite a bit— and I can completely see why they'd want to. But I'm kind of amazed that they actually do it.

I mean, picture it: they're the only white people in the club. And it's a looong way to the door...

[I gotta tell ya, if I were the employee operating the spotlight when some white people walked out, I'd be like, literally fighting with myself in the booth, Dr. Strangelove style— "want... to turn... the spot... on these hilarious... fools!"]

SMH. Funny the times/places some white people will find the nerve to "speak out" against (perceived, but in this case not actually existent) racism. Wonder how many walkouts John Mayer got?

You're right, context IS important, and I feel like you weren't thinking of that when listing your examples. There is (or was?) tensison between the English and the Irish. Men in most societies are more than a little privileged over women. When a group that holds some kind of privilege over another then makes jokes about those they oppress, it's always going to be offensive because it just reinforces their dominance. But a member of an oppressed group joking about a privileged one has a completely different context. The things you listed would make me uncomfortable because they would be reinforcing negatives that people already have to disprove. I don't think that's the same thing as just being bothered that someone outside of my group was talking about me, rather, it's about the weight that those statements carry.

Yes, that's fair, and if the comic is using humor to make people examine uncomfortable truths about racism, it's a good thing overall; this blog does it.

I think Paul Mooney is funny. It's just that humor about your faults coming from your people is different. Catholic comics making fun of our religion? They get the mass pass. Someone else whipping out the pope jokes? Nope. That doesn't mean I don't know Catholicism as an organized religion has many faults -- we all know that, but it's an identity thing.

Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle are funny. White fratboys repeating their routines (including racial epithets?) Unfunny, and often offensive, and I've said as much to them.

"How many racist jokes does it take to make the whole room uncomfortable?" One, son.

One of my favorite pieces ever is when Eddie Murphy was madeup with white makeup. The viewer is expecting that he'll be treated differently because he's white, and the white guy at the newsstand tells him, "go on, take it" when he picks up a magazine. "Nobody's looking. Go on." A loan officer hands him piles of money. So he gets these benefits which are exaggerated, but we all do recognize that there is a societal advantage to being white; there's truth under the satire of privilege, and that's why it's sharp and funny, IMHO.

The Daily Show South Africa bit in the previous post? Isn't that kind of clever. (Why didn't the guy go to one of the displaced housing areas -- people made to move because of the World Cup. There were no white residents affected by that, AFAIK.)

"Understandable" and "right" are two different things. I can understand a WP walking out of a performance like Mooney might give, but I don't think they're in the right, or that they have any real reason to feel upset other than "the scary black man poked fun at me, waaaah".

@Kraas re: 'I don't think they're in the right, or that they have any real reason to feel upset other than "the scary black man poked fun at me, waaaah".'

Another possibility, whether they would voice it or not, is that they might walk out feeling indignant because they thought Mooney had "crossed the line" or that what he said was "uncalled for"--in other words, because he doesn't know his place. The idea that white people set boundaries for blacks is still very much a part of white culture.

Actually, what's the context of the Lassie routine that makes it funny? Are whites stereotyped as having excessively human-like relationships with their dogs, or are they typically laughed at by POCs for enjoying such lame TV shows?

Mooney's critiques and jokes about white people I thought were great, and funny. But I'm not cool with his ableist jokes. F'ex the entire joke that starts at 30:30 hinges on how funny deaf people sound when they talk. The only reason that would be funny is if you have the p.o.v. that people with disabilities are "wacky" and abnormal. Same thing after that joke where he makes fun of people with Parkinson's Disease...for shaking. PwD don't need to be othered in comedy shows, they get that enough in real life as it is.

@Tyro At least for me, the bit about Lassie is the fact that people make a big deal about Lassie being so fucking smart. It's a dog. Yes, dogs can be intelligent- most animals are (raccoons, cats, mice, pigs, horses). They may not be smart in a human way, but they are smart.

Lassie is human smart, but not human. (Possible connection to treatment of POC in the past?) I haven't seen Lassie- are there POC in it? I'm betting not. It's sad when you live in a world where a group of people treats a single animal better than a whole other group of people (e.g., white people treating this one Lassie character better than they treat any black person ever). Maybe I am also missing something, but this still bears thinking about.

At least for me, the bit about Lassie is the fact that people make a big deal about Lassie being so fucking smart. It's a dog. Yes, dogs can be intelligent- most animals are (raccoons, cats, mice, pigs, horses). They may not be smart in a human way, but they are smart.

Sure, but I don't see why that routine would be specifically coded as "about whites" to the point where a white audience would be uncomfortable-- unless, as he implies, he does that routine in his "white people voice," in which case it's not about Lassie it's about, "it's funny when the comedian imitates white people." In which case it would have been funnier if he did that voice while talking about heading out of their condo, hopping in their volvo, and listening to NPR while they head to the farmer's market. But he broke into the business in 1970: the jokes were probably a lot more topical. And maybe POCs have a whole cultural set up references regarding WP's affection for the TV show Lassie, which I've never seen. I was just kind of trying to figure out how I'd be a white person made totally uncomfortable by the lassie joke and instead came away thinking, "Huh?" , and he clearly thinks this is some of his edgiest material.

It was the 70s-- kind of a crazy time, and you had to be there, I guess.

You seem so obstinate, Tyro. Mooney's not claiming his comedy was "the edgiest"; he's explaining how it made white people uncomfortable.

As for the riff on Lassie, I think the joke is on white people who basically treat dogs like people. Some even treat their dogs better than people, and that includes talking to them like they're people. Who but white people would leave their entire estate to a goddamn dog (or cat)?

AE said... As for the riff on Lassie, I think the joke is on white people who basically treat dogs like people. Some even treat their dogs better than people, and that includes talking to them like they're people. Who but white people would leave their entire estate to a goddamn dog (or cat)?

That’s it exactly, whites are so busy living ‘normal lives’ they don’t consider their behavior/tastes as being anything out of the ordinary. “I mean everyone loves dogs don’t they?” But we POC observe whites and marvel at their eccentricities. Some dogs had their own TV show while blacks were struggling for better representation on the airwaves. Television sitcoms and movies in which dogs were featured prominently.

Disney’s Old Yeller and The Littlest Hobo come to mind. The Adventures of Rin Tin and Benji the Hunted are a few others; then there’s this humorous Seinfeld send up of Lassie. “What's that boy? Trouble at the old mill?”

Prestigious events like the Westminster Dog Show have come to rival the Miss America Pageant in spectacle and formality and tells me whites love their pets to a fault. Comedians have made light of this tendency in whites for years. DC Curry's observations about white people and their dogs are quite telling. It’s this jab if you will that whites find uncomfortable, because they take pet ownership very seriously. It’s why I think whites had such a hard time forgiving Michael Vick; some still haven't by the way...

Prestigious events like the Westminster Dog Show have come to rival the Miss America Pageant in spectacle and formality and tells me whites love their pets to a fault. Comedians have made light of this tendency in whites for years. DC Curry's observations about white people and their dogs are quite telling. It’s this jab if you will that whites find uncomfortable, because they take pet ownership very seriously. It’s why I think whites had such a hard time forgiving Michael Vick; some still haven't by the way...

I'm one of these annoying, dog loving whites that blacks like to ridicule & yes, i still detest Michael Vick. I make no excuse for enjoying the companionship of animals & feel pretty the much the same sense of absurdity towards black people & their religious fervour.